"I'll tell you what, Miller-The MAIN thing I implied is that Regis applied for, and received a patent for his version of the monoblock, in 1902.
That fact is indisputable.

Patent number: 246195
Filing date: Apr 23, 1881
Issue date: Aug 23, 1881
http://www.google.com/patents?id=QiBMAAA...;q=&f=false

My secondary point, that you chose to ignore, is that Regis Darne died FABULOUSLY wealthy in the late 1930s. That he made a ton of money off the patent for the monoblock issued to him, is indisputable, also. Pieper was in also-ran in the gun business, by any way of comparison, with Regis Darne.

Pieper started his business in 1859. The business continued until 1958. Along the way he was one of the founders of FN. Henri did not die a poor man in 1898.

I explained to you that I didn't know exactly how they differed, but, Pieper's is illustrated in patent literature with damascus materials, and Darne's is not. I do know Darne applied for, and had his patent renewed, in the 1930s.

There is no mention of damascus in the Pieper patent. Not sure what difference the barrel material makes, they all passed proof. A proof that was accepted in France.

So, to make you happy, today, lets say Pieper patented a monoblock of some sort, that must have differed in some critical way from a monoblock that was later patented by Regis Darne. And, for some reason, a lot more examples, like, say 975,000, of the Darne patent monoblock exist today.

Where is the Darne patent available? By the way, Darne was not the only one with a sliding breech http://www.mot.be/w/1/files/RCB/RCB057001.pdf

Pete

http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Movie.html